‘Not a fake’: Pranksters dupe presenter Tucker Carlson over Kate Middleton photo

A pair of YouTuber pranksters have duped US presenter Tucker Carlson in an interview about Kate Middleton’s edited photo.

A pair of YouTube pranksters have duped US presenter Tucker Carlson in a wild prank over Kate Middleton’s controversial edited Mother’s Day photo.

The former Fox News presenter was tricked by British YouTubers Josh Pieters and Archie Manners into interviewing a “disgruntled former employee” of Kensington Palace who was fired over the photo, released earlier this month.

In a video shared to X, Pieters and Manners revealed how they fooled Carlson into interviewing Manners for a “global exclusive” on his streaming show, The Tucker Carlson Network.

“I sent (Carlson) an email claiming Archie was Kate and William’s digital content creator who had been fired for photoshopping the image so badly, people thought it was fake,” Pieters explained in the video which has gained over 1.5 million views.

Carlson was tricked into interviewing a former employee who was fired over the edited photo. Picture: Gavriil Grigorov/Pool/AFP/

To secure the interview, Pieters created a fake contract of employment from Kensington Palace to “prove” he worked for the royals and purposefully included “ridiculous” clauses.

For one clause, Pieters wrote “if (the) probationary period is failed, the company retains the right to amputate one (1) limb of their choosing.”

“If Tucker Carlson’s people read this, why on earth would they let you on the show?” he said.

However, the fake document proved a success, with Manners able to secure an interview on the show shortly after.

Speaking to Manners during the interview, Carlson said: “We’ve done our best to verify that your identity is what you say it is. You’re not a fake [Alexei] Navalny or doing a prank.”

“So tell us what did you do for Kate Middleton?”

Manners managed to secure an interview with Carlson on his streaming show. Picture: X@joshua_pieters

Pieters included “ridiculous” clauses in the fake contract of employment. Picture: X@joshua_pieters

Manners then claimed the photo was taken by Kate’s uncle back in December and he was tasked with editing the image, which included removing a Christmas tree from the background.

“That was great, and really interesting too. I didn’t expect to be as interested in it as I was because you told a really great story,” Carlson said after the interview.

Speaking to Deadline after the prank, Manners said he and Pieters later decided to blow their cover and come clean before the interview was streamed on Carlson’s show.

“We didn’t want to cause any more rumours, that are not true, to go out to lots and lots of people,” he explained.

This isn’t the first time one of Pieters pranks have made headlines.

In 2020, the YouTuber, with the help of Manners, duped controversial British commentator Katie Hopkins, into flying to Prague to accept the “Campaign to Unify the Nation Trophy”.

“Now that Katie Hopkins can’t read Twitter, I can tell you that on Monday I made her fly to Prague to pick up a completely fake award,” Pieters tweeted at the time.

The post was accompanied by an image of Hopkins holding a trophy and beaming in front of the award’s blown-up capital letters, which spelled a certain swear word starting with C.

YouTuber Josh Pieters flew Hopkins to Prague to accept the "Campaign to Unify the Nation Trophy". Picture: X

Conspiracy theories surrounding Kate’s photo

Kensington Palace released the controversial photo of Kate Middleton and her family on March 10, to coincide with Mother’s Day in the UK.

The image was later pulled from four major picture agencies over concerns it had been “manipulated”, before the Princess of Wales released an unprecedented statement copping the blame.

“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” she said.

“I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused.

“I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day.

The photoshopped image of Kate Middleton the Princess of Wales, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis was released on UK Mother's Day 2024. Picture: Kensington Palace/Instagram

A number of conspiracy theories have since circulated online – including claims old photos of the Princess were superimposed onto the Mother’s Day portrait.

One theory that a photo from Kate’s 2016 Vogue photo shoot was repurposed has been viewed more than 25 million times on X, with more than 130,000 likes.

“My analysis of the Kate Middleton photo saga is that they took her face from the Vogue cover she did years ago and edited it in,” said Ruby Naldrett, who is senior social media editor at the Daily Mirror and Daily Star.

The photo marked the first time Kate had spoken out publicly, or released a photo of herself, since her “planned” abdominal operation in January.